Darby O'Gill and the Little People

One of Disney's best live-action films, 1959's Darby O'Gill and the Little People boasts some still-astonishing special effects and a hint of nightmarish darkness (not to mention un-PC shots of characters sitting in a pub swilling pints of stout!). Albert Sharpe plays Darby, a lazy but likable old charmer who lives with his adorable twinkle-eyed grown daughter (Janet Munro) and regales everyone with his tales of leprechauns. When he manages to catch King Brian (Jimmy O'Dea), the leader of the leprechauns, he's rewarded with three wishes, but since he's about to lose his job to a strapping young Dubliner (a pre-James Bond Sean Connery), Darby takes a few days to consider his wishes carefully. Celebrated cinematographer Winton Hoch was a natural choice to photograph Ireland's lush greens after his beautiful work on John Ford's The Quiet Man several years earlier, and it helps set the film's playful, yet sinister mood (only the tacked-on bad guy, a town bully played by Kieron Moore, kills the momentum, though Connery's singing comes in a close second). Director Robert Stevenson worked all over the map, ranging from Orson Welles' films (Jane Eyre) to melodramas (Back Street) before becoming a permanent Disney fixture, and his smart work on this film makes it one of the rare family movies that should enchant both children and grownups alike. Presented with a sparkling digital transfer, DVD extras here include a full-length episode of the Walt Disney Presents TV show promoting the film, plus two new featurettes (one on Connery and another on the visual effects). Highly recommended. (J.M. Anderson)